First Sock

I’ve been obsessing about socks. After hearing Stephanie Pearl-McPhee talk and reading her book, I couldn’t get it out of my head that The Sock was somehow my right of passage in the knitting world. I snuck a skein of sock yarn into my purchase at LYS and cast-on in the car while waiting for the kids to get out of school. I thought, “okay, I’m using smaller needles than are called for, I’ll just go by the pattern and not worry about swatching it.” You can hear the ominous music, can’t you?

The ribbing was lovely and I moved with confidence into rows and rows of stockinette. The yarn, which looked passibly nice in the yarn store, was knitting up completely gorgeous. This color is my season’s obsession…chilli powder red…yum.At this point, I’m starting to see the lovely colors, the many rows of even stitches, and the oddly large circumference. Hmmm…after much denial and moaning and whining, I admit that this sock, if completed, would likely fit a bear.

Ribbit….frogging is such fun. But undetered, I cast-on again immediately.

Turning the heel required a bottle of hard cider and chocolate in abundance. But there it is, in all it’s glory. 🙂

The finished sock awaits grafting. Kitchener stitch is a frightening thing. I don’t know why, so don’t ask me, but almost everyone says so. I sat in front of my computer with Knitty.com’s article about grafting in front of me. It turned out okay. Next time it will look perfect.

Done. I was afraid to try it on and wandered around the house holding it for a while. Then Sam started pacing with me, saying “I’m following you until you try it on.” It’s lovely. Okay…so the gauge could still be a bit tighter (I’m still scared of needles under size 2) and there’s a little bump in the toe where my grafting could have been neater, but damn, it’s a nice looking sock.And, yes, I’ve already cast-on the second one.